country. rain-soaked roads and hillsides can't take much more, but they will have to. the storms continue. here is a live look outside from the abc7 rooftop camera. you can see the rain has stopped basically in san francisco for now, but not for long. good evening. merry christmas. i'm dan ashley. carolyn johnson is off

tonight. not a great day to play outside with toys. we have live team watch coverage. spencer christian is tracking more rain on our doppler. >> it has been a very wet evening around the bay area. right now though things are relatively calm compared with the downpours we saw earlier. let's go to live doppler 7hd, and we have scattered showers. the heaviest is in the south bay, but let's close in on the north bay where we have a little light rain. some assisted yes, sir rainfall east of santa rosa and moving toward y o -- yountville. mill pea dishas heavier rain pushing into the higher terrain. and then farther south from the ben low man to the bay. heavier rainfall is developing, but it is not even -- even though it is calmer, it is not winding down. more rain coming our way tonight and tomorrow.

a look at the accu-weather seven-day forecast in a few minutes. dan? >> spencer, thanks. all of this rain has brought flooding in some areas. in sonoma county, high water is forcing road closures. the chp issued a traffic alert in shellville south of sonoma. thomas roman is there live with the latest. thomas? >> dan, if there is any consulation here it is late on christmas night and most people are already home. this flooding and road closure won't cause much of a traffic problem. >> this is all too common a sight in sonoma and napa county. highway 121 and highway 12 floods after a heavy rain and then becomes a river when the high tide occurs and pours more water into the area. the road will be closed until sometime on wednesday. the rain was heavy throughout the bay area. the streets became flooded after 5:00 p.m. umbrellas were a necessary part of any wardrobe on this christmas day. the rain poured down on

richmond and mcdonald avenue slowing traffic. the frontage roads were partially covered. few drivers slowed down. roads were filled with people returning from spending the holidays with family and friends. they were very busy due to twice the usual accidents. cedric emerson is ready for dry weather. >> i am actually from the bay area, so i am used to it. it is definitely rough when you drive out there on the freeways. >> are you happy to see the rain go? >> yes, i am. i am ready to get this nice weather back. >> water was the reason for the closure. but the rain was not the culprit. a watermain burst beneath the roadway. it closed because they feared the leakage could cause the roadway to collapse. a water department worker and firefighters found the shutoff valve. they turned the water off to an undisclosed number of homes. she has gone through this before. >> what are you going to do -- i mean, we don't know how long

the water will be out or anything. >> we have bottled water. >> the rain has stopped where we are here now in sonoma county. they are keeping an eye on creeks creeks and streams because of possible flooding and also because the ground is so saturated they are concerned about trees falling over and mudslides. live in sonoma county, abc7 news. >> thomas, thank you so much. people heading back from their christmas tbat rigs are dealing with slick roads. here is a shot from our golden gate bridge camera. the number of road incidents including accidents reported tonight by the chp has nearly doubled from a typical weekend night. the chp is reminding all of us to slow down on wet roads roads and leave more space between your car and the vehicle in front of you. in east palo alto people are holding their breath hoping the rain won't bring a repeat of monday. that's when seven homes were

evacuated because of flooding. city crews worked into the wee hours this morning placing sandbags along the leaky levy. here is the area we are talking about. the weak levy is at pulgas avenue off east bay shore road. it needs to be strengthened and a construction project begins in the spring to do exactly that. in the north bay, the rain and the runoff has left the napa river swollen, but well within its banks tonight. other parts of wine country look more like lakes than farm land. water topped the levy where it borders 70 acres of vineyards at the larson family winery. it is an area where people expect flooding in heavy rains. it is not a big problem. in fact, the flooding is a nuisance that has some benefits as well. >> for the vineyards, the good news and bad news. the good news is recharges the water supply and we get nice soil. we get the topsoil from the valley. and the bad news is there is debris in there too, so every

year it cost $10,000 to $15,000 to clear the debris. >> work crews typically repair the levies once a year after the rainy season ends. so often the santa cruz mountains get the brunt of the winter storms. our storm watch team coverage continues with sergio on how some people spent part of their holiday preparing. >> drivers who were either on their way to the holiday dinner or leaving the day success festivities had to deal with the rain-soaked roads. the storms have left the hillsides saturated making them prone to rock and mud sheds. mudslides. they cordoned them off to make them safer. with today's line of rainstorms, some residents took a break from their usual christmas tradition to load up on sandbags in ben low man. mountain runoff is a problem and even more rain could mean trouble. >> the big concern why you are filling up on sandbags? >> keep the kill from sliding

into my neighbor's house. i have water running off the top of my driveway. >> area rivers and creeks are raging, but they are not threatening to overthrow their banks. even with today's rain there is no expectation they will pose any problems. as these storms pass through, keep in mind if you are driving they will also be causing some foggy conditions, especially through the santa cruz mountains. be careful out there. abc7 news. >> people try not to let the weather put a damper on this christmas i did. some -- christmas day. some took an opportunity to get closer under the umbrella. one covered in ponchos and parkas as they walked around justin herman plaza. it didn't keep away from the grocery store here at river mart plaza. some people forgot their um brrrr brel laws and had to make a dash, but made do.

if you are flying or picking somebody up from the airport, call ahead. sfo says weather is delaying some flights an average of 60 to as much as 90 minutes. no major delays at san jose or oakland, just sfo. for up to the minute flight information check out the flight tracker on our website, abc7news.com. a stretch of highway 1 south of big surrey mains closed -- big sur remains closed after rock slides from a weekend storm. the slide happened sunday afternoon after the heavy rain we got. crews are working to clear the debris and to repair a 60 of-foot section of the damaged roadway. here are the specific stretch we are talking about. no word when it will re-open. officials hope to have one lane open later this week. the rain here means heavy snow in the sierra, but it is causing traffic problems, mainly because everybody has the same idea. and that idea is get up to the slopes. highway 180 was packed with cars going to squaw valley.

the constant snow made it slow going and it made one man realize he needed chains. >> we decided to stop by with our chains on. >> it is a tough job with the frozen fingers too. the snow continues in the sierra. squaw valley expects to have up to 20 inches of fresh powder by tomorrow night. stay with abc7 news for continuing storm watch coverage. our love coverage continues at 4:30 a.m. with the abc7 morning news, and you can track the storm anytime on-line with live doppler 7hd at abc7 news.com. bullets fly into a church at a christmas service. coming up next, a woman in the east bay is wounded trying to protect her children in the church. what police are saying in the shooting. and dramatic images touching down as a number of twisters hopscotch across the deep

south. and it seems like we just can't get much of a break from the rain. here is a look at live doppler 7hd. you can still see some showers. spencer will be back with the full wet weather accu-weather forecast coming up. and then later on "nightline." >> coming up on is a special christmased dation of "nightline" an epic journey to the top of the world. it is the search for

storms throughout the south are blamed for three deaths and tornado warnings continue in three states. look at this video of a twister touching down just after night fall in mobile, alabama. it blew out trans formers and leaving thousands without power and damaged homes, a high school, and a church. several injuries injuries were reported as well. people in parts of florida and georgia are also sleeping uneasily tonight with tornado watches in affect there as well. back here, a manhole cover

exploax forced -- explosion forced the closure of an intersection. sounds like popcorn popping. it came from a fire in an underground vault. it was caused by an equipment failure. it happened at third and mission street. the fire was put out quickly. there were no outages or customers losing power as a result of the explosion. because it was busy, no one was hurt either. well, new at 11:00, oakland police are looking at forever shot and killed a teenager. short low after 9:00, gunfire broke out near the church. officers say the target was a 17-year-old boy who had just left a liquor store. stray gunfire peppered the church and wounded the woman inside listening to the sermon. they are expected to be recover and will be okay. in new york, police found

human remains in the burned out home of a man who killed two firefighters yesterday. they believe the victim is the gunman's sister. a vigil was held in webster for the firefighters. two others remain in the hospital. police say excon william spangler armed himself with three weapons and set his house on fire to lure first responders into a trap. he then killed himself. spangler left a note saying he wanted to burn down the neighborhood and kill as many people as possible. he did not give a motive of the. a solemn night in newtown, connecticut where a candlelight vigil is over. many from around the town, country and even the world stopped in the small connecticut town to pay respects of the victims of the shootings and the families. a sidewalk memorial with thousands of cards and momentos has been building for day days. 26 candles, each for one of the victims, burned for 24 hours with volunteers standing

watch to make sure the flame didn't go out. >> we noah lot of people touched and affected by this. they really just love that everyone is here supporting them from all over the world. >> police officers from neighboring towns volunteered to relief members of the newtown police department so they could spend christmas with their family. a wonderful gesture. in san francisco volunteers made it a special day for those in need. the holiday feast at st. anthony's dining room drew thousands of people looking for a hot meal and scores of people willing to help provide it. among them the naval academy football team in town for the kraft fight hunger bowl this saturday. the midshipmen volunteers could not have spent christmas in a better way. >> feel very fortunate as a football program to be here. we if we can spend a couple hours to help people enjoy christmas, this is by far the best event our team has ever

been involved with. >> and navy bowl game's opponent was serving at glide memorial church in the tenderloin. their players turned out to help. they dished out more than 5,000 meals this christmas day. and for the seventh year in a row christmas in richmond is helping needy neighbors. they provided meals and clothes and mor than 500 -- and more than 500 toys for the children. the organization relies strictly on donations and the efforts of volunteers. christmas in richmond provided meals and services to the residents at the north richmond community senior citizen center. as we said at the top, a soggy christmas day. what is coming as folks head back to work? spencer christian is in for sandhya patel with the forecast. >> looks like our case of the soggies is going to last overnight. we don't have widespread heavy rainfall, but we do have pockets of showers. some locally heavy. we will start in the north bay

where we have light rain and areas of light rain pushing through parts of sonoma county and napa county. a little farther south, south of san jose now and into the higher terrain, we have an area of assisted yes, sir rainfall moving away from populated areas and a little farther south from there from santa cruz down to castroville and out toward gilroy we have an area of assisted yes, sir and more concentrated rainfall. many areas are experiencing dry conditions. it is pleasantly cool to mild. temperatures in the mid40s in some of our inland locations in the north bay and low 50sin other locations like antioch, san francisco, half moon bay. on to our winds which are calm in many spots at the moment. we have winds gusting to 20 miles per hour at half moon bay. that's quite a change from earlier in the evening when we had some brief, but powerful gusts in many locations. showers continue tonight and will be heavy at times. beliefly moving quickly through the area. winding down. partly cloudy and cool on

thursday. let's look at our projected lows for tonight. it will be a little chilly, but not cold. in the north bay valleys 40 in santa rosa and 40 in fairfield. low to mid40s over the remainder of the bay area. our satellite-radar composite shows the movement of the frontal system that brought us the shower activity and rainfall and snow in the sierra is pushing to the south and east at the moment. still some trailing showers to follow. we will start our animation at 11:00 tonight. during the overnight hours we will see pockets of showers. again could be widely scattered and there could be locally heavy and brief downpours. we will see it winding down and clear out a bit taking us into thursday. in the sierra, it is rather winter-like. winter weather advisory until tomorrow evening. we are looking at a chance of 4 to 8 inches above 4,000 feet. chain controls and travel delays are likely in that area.

back to the bay area we start the day with showers and rather widespread and becoming more widely scattered with breaks of sunshine. it is not going to be a mild bay. but temperatures in the mid50sin some spots. 56 in oakland. 55 in fremont and palo alto. highs of 47 in clear lake and 53 apiece at santa rosa and napa and vallejo and down near monterey bay, although the showers will continue to push in that direction through the late afternoon, the high temperatures will make it to the mid50sin most locations near monterey bay. here is the accu-weather seven-day forecast. a mainly dry day on thursday. slight chance of showers on friday. looks like a better chance in the north bay and better chance late in the day and into the evening hours. chance of rain on saturday. partly cloudy and dry on sunday. and then sunny and dry on monday which is new year's eve and even sunnier on new year's day. we start the new year on a nice, dry note. >> why not? >> all right, sports director larry beil is here.

the nba had a christmas gift for everybody. >> if watching basketball was on your wish list you got your wish granted. it was basketball nonstop. jeremy lynn had a christmas gift. he took off against the vols.

it is not quite lynn -sanity, but he is taking off. they were giving and lynn was taking. he makes the steel and gets it to tony douglas for the basket. lynn with 11 assists. the former palo alto star pumped in 20 points. houston lead by 17 at the half. topped by james harden's five starters at double figures the rockets blowout the bulls 1 twenty-97. houston has won six of the last 7. at the staples center and fish burn and samuel l jackson both at courtside. the fans got to see world peace in action.

that is meta world peace. he had 16 of his 20 points in the second quarter. this basket put them up by three early in the fourth. but they couldn't slow down kobe briept. kobe bryant. he scored 30 or more points. clinging to a three-point lead and gasol comes up big. the lakers get back to 500 with their fifth victory 100-94. right after that contest was over the court had to be converted so the clippers could host denver. show time is back, but they now describe this l.a. team. now check out jordan with his own highlight real slam. they beat denver for their 14th win. 112-100. 234* -- in a rematch, the thunder took on the heat. dwyane wade with an opening slams it through. kevin dure ranked -- kevin durant answers with his own

jam. he scored a game high 33 points. lebron james lead and the heat up by three. time is running out, and russell westbrook is off the mark. miami hangs on to win it 103-97. it was a busy day for some of the nba's best. blake griffin and chris paul and jason kidd and hardin found way to get in the holiday spirit. >> ♪ the way we play the game sphoat. ♪ ♪ is such a pretty sight ♪ jingling bells snow. ♪ ♪ jingling bells ♪ jingling all the way ♪ oh what fun ♪ it is to play a game on christmas day ♪ >> hardin and kidd were hit with technical fouls for their singing. >> they should have been ejected. thanks very much. we are on storm watch. live doppler 7hd shows the

rain tonight and spencer will let you know what to expect when we

let's look at the conditions. widely scattered showers and to heavily concentrated rainfall. pockets moving toward santa rosa and rind cor. wind cor. windsor. they are starting to move on shore toward the santa cruz mountains. they are moving rapidly toward the monterey bay. over the monterey bay and gilroy and leaving santa cruz. tomorrow morning we will have skies that are a little wet. well, i went to the seven-day. well, tomorrow morning early we are going to have showers scattered around the bay area. during the daytime hours we will see the showers become less numerous and then taper

off. >> thanks very much. that is our report. m

tonight on "nightline," christmas twisters. tornados touch down across the deep south. >> oh, jesus, look at that tornado. >> knocking out power in alabama, leaving behind a path of destruction. unicorns of the sea. we ventured deep into the arctic circle in search of the mysterious narwal, one of the world's most elusive endangered creatures. the frozen planet literally splits open before our eyes. our team faces a desperate scramble to make it off the ice. from the global resources of abc